Type A and Type B assisted living licenses in Texas
Texas licenses every assisted living facility as Type A or Type B. The difference is not size, price or comfort. It is whether the state believes the residents living there can get themselves out of the building in a fire.
The license type affects which residents a facility may serve, staffing requirements and building requirements. HHSC explains assisted living facility types in its provider guidance.
What each license permits
Type A license
Residents must be able to evacuate the building without help.
A Type A license generally serves residents who can evacuate without staff assistance and follow emergency directions. Both small and large Type A facilities require night staff to be immediately available; large Type A facilities also require night staff to be awake.
Type B license
Residents may need staff help to evacuate.
Type B facilities may serve residents who need help evacuating or transferring to and from a wheelchair, need assistance during nighttime sleeping hours, or cannot follow emergency directions. Residents must not be permanently bedfast. In every Type B facility, night staff must be immediately available and awake. Staffing must meet residents’ needs.
This is general information, not medical advice. It describes what Texas and Medicare require, not what any particular person needs. Talk to your parent's physician about their specific situation.
What the license does not tell you
License information is only part of the record. Inspection findings, complaint investigations and enforcement records can also help families assess a facility’s compliance. These records are not equivalent to a nursing-home star rating, and they do not establish what living there is like today.
Sources: Texas HHSC assisted living staffing guidance; Texas Long-Term Care Ombudsman training manual.
So the license tells you what a facility is permitted to do. It does not tell you what it is like to live there, and no page on this site claims to. Absence of a published rating is not a good rating — it is an absent one.
Reading a license on a tour
A facility's license type is public, and it is printed on that facility's page here. Two things are worth knowing before you walk in. First, a Type B license does not mean the residents need more care than a Type A resident — it means the facility is allowed to accept residents who do. Second, a facility whose license does not permit a level of care cannot lawfully accept someone who needs it, no matter how the tour goes.
The Type A facilities on this site
Listed alphabetically, not ranked. Texas publishes no rating for assisted living, so there is nothing here to rank them by.
Narrower views of the same license records: state-certified memory care and small residential care homes.
Common questions
What is the difference between Type A and Type B assisted living in Texas?
A Type A license generally serves residents who can evacuate without staff assistance and follow emergency directions. Both small and large Type A facilities require night staff to be immediately available; large Type A facilities also require night staff to be awake. Type B facilities may serve residents who need help evacuating or transferring to and from a wheelchair, need assistance during nighttime sleeping hours, or cannot follow emergency directions. Residents must not be permanently bedfast. In every Type B facility, night staff must be immediately available and awake. Staffing must meet residents’ needs.
Is a Type B assisted living facility better than a Type A?
Neither license is better. The license describes who the facility is permitted to serve, not how well it cares for them. Review the facility’s license and compliance records alongside your family’s needs.
How many assisted living facilities near Houston are Type A?
Of the 163 state-licensed assisted living facilities published on this site, 17 hold a Type A license and 146 hold a Type B license. Those counts come from the Texas HHSC licensing roster, August 2026.
Does a Type A license mean the facility cannot take my parent?
It means the facility is licensed only for residents who can leave the building without staff help in an emergency. Whether a particular person meets that description is a clinical question for their physician and an admission question for the facility, and this page cannot answer either.
Browse the full list: every state-licensed assisted living facility published here, with license type, capacity and ownership on each page.